Hotel guest reported hearing Vegas shots nearby

Hotel guest reported hearing Vegas shots nearby

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on the release by Las Vegas police of witness statements and officer reports in the investigation of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history (all times local):

7:20 p.m.

A person staying in a room two floors below and six rooms away from the gunman on the Mandalay Bay’s 30th floor during the Las Vegas mass shooting tried to call 911 and the hotel’s front desk to report that the shooter sounded like he was on that floor or above it.

The person, whose name and gender were redacted in records released Wednesday by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police, was unable to get through to 911 or the Mandalay Bay and instead called the nearby Luxor hotel to report the shooting.

The call was transferred to Mandalay Bay security and the person reported the shooter appeared to be on the 30th floor.

The person waited by the hotel room peephole and saw about four police officers pass by 20 minutes later. The person stayed put for 40 to 50 more minutes before police called to say they had found the shooter on the 32nd floor.

“I tried to tell somebody as fast as possible that he was in our area but I couldn’t get through,” the person said.

The person later reported hearing a single pop, which he believed was the gunman killing himself.

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5:30 p.m.

A man who says he met Las Vegas mass shooter Stephen Paddock less than a month before the Oct. 1 attack told authorities that Paddock had ranted against the government and warned that law enforcement and the military would start confiscating guns.

In a jailhouse interview with police and the FBI, the man said Paddock called Federal Emergency Management DC escort agency “camps” set up after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 “a dry run for law enforcement and military to start kickin’ down doors and … confiscating guns.”

The man, whose name was redacted in reports released Wednesday, quoted Paddock saying somebody has to wake up the American public and get them to arm themselves.

The man said he met with Paddock outside a Las Vegas sporting goods store after posting an online ad to sell schematics to convert semi-automatic guns to fire automatically.

Police and the FBI refused to answer questions from The Associated Press about the account.

Authorities have not provided a motive in what was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

Clark County Commission Chairman Steve Sisolak told AP that police and the FBI told him no motive has been identified.

Sisolak said he hadn’t heard of the man’s account and he could not say whether it was credible.

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5:10 p.m.

A Mandalay Bay housekeeper who cleaned the Las Vegas gunman’s hotel room four days before the Oct. 1 shooting told police that he made her uncomfortable.

The housekeeper’s statement to police was released Wednesday by police after a court battle by The Associated Press and other media organizations to obtain public records about the Oct. 1 shooting.

The woman told police that Stephen Paddock answered the door then returned to his computer and ordered room escort service in DC. She emptied the refrigerator and changed the bed sheets at his request.

She said he sat at a table eating soup but kept staring at her, at one point asking “Are you okay?” She responded that she was but needed to get items from her cart.

The woman said Paddock kept staring at her while he ate and it was “embarrassing.”

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4:55 p.m.

Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos told police he was afraid he was going to be killed when he was shot by gunman Stephen Paddock while investigating a stairwell door that was being kept shut by a metal bracket.

Records released by Las Vegas police Wednesday show Campos was interviewed Oct. 4 on the 32nd floor of the casino-resort. That’s the same floor from which the gunman carried out the attack.

Campos says he initially received a call from dispatch around 10 p.m. and was told to check “doors” as the property has a system that signals when a door has been opened for long periods.

He says he reached the 32nd floor through an elevator after noticing the stairwell door that leads to the hallway was locked or secured. He says he then walked down the hall and discovered a metal bracket keeping the door shut. He contacted security and maintenance.

Campos says he then heard what sounded like a “very loud drill,” was shot in the left calf while walking away, heard what he described as automatic fire and contacted security dispatch.

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3:35 p.m.

A Las Vegas Strip casino host who told police that he met Stephen Paddock several times when he gambled over the years says he had a bit of a temper.

The man told police and the FBI on Oct. 7 that he would provide Paddock with hotel rooms and show tickets. He says he chatted with him from time to time while Paddock gambled.

The host’s name was redacted from police reports made public Wednesday.

He described the man who authorities say killed 58 people and injured hundreds as an “odd guy” who liked to talk about gambling and traveling, and who once called screaming to complain that it took 20 minutes for his luggage to be brought to his room.

The host says Paddock once was given a penthouse presidential suite on the 51st floor of the Rio hotel, and that he later requested the room again several times.

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1:45 p.m.

A Las Vegas woman who witnessed the chaos of the mass shooting in Las Vegas says she knew the sounds of gunfire were not firecrackers when she saw a man nearby drop to the ground, his “eyes wide open lifeless.”

As she crouched down, a massive spraying of bullets rained down and the unidentified woman thought the gunfire was coming from helicopters above.

Her account was among those provided by Las Vegas police in a DVD with witness statements and officer reports about last year’s mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds on the Las Vegas Strip.

It was made public after a court battle by The Associated Press and other media organizations to obtain public records about the Oct. 1 shooting

The woman says she climbed a fence and sprinted toward a stage where she saw people taking cover. She had to jump over the dead body of a security guard on her way before crawling under a stage only a few feet high.

From there, she texted her sister-in-law who was watching her kids: “OMG, there’s tons of gunshots and people dead everywhere.”

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1:20 p.m.

Witness accounts of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history include those of a Las Vegas woman wounded in the shoulder made it to a hospital and an Arizona man upset that the lights came on at an outdoor concert when gunfire started and people began falling.

The unidentified Glendale, Arizona man says people at the Oct. 1 concert on the Las Vegas Strip were “lit up like a fishbowl.”

Witness’ names were blacked out from more than 1,200 pages of reports made public Wednesday by Las Vegas police.

The wounded woman told police she heard what people told her were fireworks while country music singer Jason Aldean was on stage.

Several seconds later, she fell to the ground and couldn’t feel her arm.

Her friends got her to a street where a limousine driver took them to a hospital where she remembered people in hallways on stretchers and hospital staff unable to take names of patients because there were so many of them.

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12:05 p.m.

Police in Las Vegas have released a DVD that the department says contains witness statements and officer reports about last year’s mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds on the Las Vegas Strip.

The information made public Wednesday follows a court battle by The Associated Press and other media organizations to obtain public records about the Oct. 1 massacre that was the deadliest event of its kind in modern U.S. history.

Police two weeks ago released video from two officers’ body-worn cameras showing police blasting through the door of the 32nd-floor hotel suite where authorities say the gunman opened fire from windows and killed himself before officers arrived.

The police department opposed releasing the information, calling the public records request costly and time-consuming.

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7:55 a.m.

Police in Las Vegas plan to make public witness statements and officer reports about last year’s mass shooting that killed 58 people and injured hundreds in what was the deadliest event of its kind in modern U.S. history.

The scheduled release of documents on Wednesday comes more than seven months after the Oct. 1 Las Vegas Strip shooting.

It follows a court order in a public records lawsuit by The Associated Press and other media organizations.

Las Vegas police two weeks ago released video from two officers’ body-worn cameras showing police blasting through the door of the 32nd-floor hotel suite where authorities say the gunman opened fire from windows and killed himself before officers arrived.

The police department opposed releasing the information, calling the public records request costly and time-consuming.